Had another GP consultation with Ms Chua today, and it was just as insightful as the first with regard to how to tackle essay questions. I think I finally see why they (whoever "they" are) decided to include it in our syllabus: the skills needed to do well in GP really are important logical thinking skills which I expect will go far in preparing us for future obstacles. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that GP would actually be enjoyable if it wasn't for the fact that it's graded. Actually, that kind of applies to everything, doesn't it? Do we really need the threat of examinations to push ourselves to fulfill our own potential? The best-case scenario, of course, would be that we are more than willing to give our all for a subject out of sheer passion, but obviously that doesn't happen a lot. If education was purely passion-based, then on the one hand it would result in truly self-driven experts in a diverse range of fields, but on the other hand there would also be a large group of free-floaters who end up wasting their lives away doing nothing or, arguably even worse, specialise in something which they love but cannot apply anywhere in real life. And what if someone is gifted in a field but not interested in it? Would it be right to force him down a path he doesn't want to take?
So anyway, sometime during the consultation Ms Chua said something along the lines of "I think we could all sit for the 'A' levels tomorrow, can't we? The waiting time now is only a matter of sharpening the skills we already have." Frankly, I'm saddened by the truth I see in that statement. Yes, ten days (yes, we only have ten days left at the time of posting) is a very short time with which to actually learn anything new, and maybe the most we can cram into our heads in the next week and a half will be refinements of what we already know. True or not, it hurts to think that the deadline for changing the future has passed us and that we're now more or less locked onto our respective paths like trains on rails. Having said all that, nothing is absolute in life, and I'll continue to cling on to success stories of people who have risen from the ashes between prelims and 'A' levels for what little help it will do. In this fight, every little bit will help, and you never know if that one mark you picked up from revision will be the one mark to clinch your grade. And of course, I can get through the 'A' levels without regret if I know that I fought till my last breath.
On Thursday, there was much buzz and discussion from the guys of NJ as we all received our NS enlistment notices. Unfortunately, I was sorted into the first intake and will be going off on my exotic tropical island getaway on 9th February 2011. I was really hoping to get sorted into the second intake. There are so many things I want to do after 'A' levels! Now I'm getting a break that's even shorter than the one between 'O' levels and JC, and I'll have to spend a good part of it preparing for NS. It seems I won't be able to catch the release of Protest The Hero's new album :(
Speaking of which, there's been a PTH revival of sorts in my playlist; I'm suddenly listening to their songs as often as when I first discovered them and was totally raving (not that I'm not still obsessed with their amazing music \m/ ), especially Palms Read. I swear I've played that song at least ten times in the past 24 hours. So even though I know this is a repost (and probably no the first repost at that), here's Palms Read by Protest The Hero, a song of epic proportions from an equally epic band:
